Afterwards her Majesty, in the year 1568, incorporated this society by the name of, _The Governors, Assistants, and Society of the Mineral and Battery Works_. The number of shares belonging to this company at first amounted to thirty-six; which being divided into half and quarter parts, they are at present increased to an hundred and forty four.
MINES ROYAL COMPANY. This society owed its origin to the same cause as the former, and was founded a year before it: for in 1564 Queen Elizabeth, by her letters patent granted to Thomas Thurland and Daniel Houghsetter, and their heirs for ever, impowered them to search for mines of gold, silver, copper, and quicksilver, in the several royalties in the counties of York, Lancashire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucester, Worcester, and the principality of Wales, to be held of the crown upon the same terms as those abovementioned, with respect to the Mine and Battery Works company.
At length Thurland and Houghsetter having in virtue of the powers granted them, sold several parts or shares of their said privileges, they, with the purchasers, were, by letters patent, dated the 22d of May 1568, incorporated by the stile of, _The Governors, Assistants, and Commonalty of the Mines Royal_. The shares of this company at first consisted of twenty-four; but they have since been increased to ninety-six. _Sir John Pettus’s Fodinæ Regale._
MINORIES. This street extends from Aldgate street to Tower hill. The middle part of the east side is called the Little Minories; this part is railed in, and is out of the liberties of the city. Here anciently stood an abbey of nuns of the order of St. Clare, called the Minoresses; whence the street obtained the name of the Minories. See the article TRINITY _in the Minories_.
MINT, an office kept in the Tower for coining money. Before the Norman conquest the Kings of England set apart certain monasteries for mints; presuming that the coinage would in those places be best secured from frauds and corruption. Edward I. however ordered a mint of thirty furnaces to be erected in the Tower of London, and others in Canterbury, Kingston upon Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne, Bristol and Exeter. From that time the mint was kept sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another, according to the will and pleasure of the Prince, who, for a sum of money, was frequently prevailed upon to grant the privilege of coining to some Nobleman, Bishop, or Corporation; which being attended with many inconveniencies to the public, Queen Elizabeth, in the beginning of her reign, endeavoured to rectify those abuses, by confining the mint to the Tower of London, which has ever since been appropriated to the coinage of money, except when King Charles I. by the confusion of the times, was obliged to erect new mints at Oxford, York, and Newark upon Trent, where being with his army, he was reduced to the necessity of coining money to supply his present wants: and when King William III. having called in all the base and clipped money, for the sake of expedition, and for the service of distant parts of the nation, was obliged to erect mints at Bristol, Exeter, York and Winchester.